Don't discuss politics in public unless you want to start a fight.
Vote early and vote often.Whatever you can get away with.
Vote according to your conscience and for those that promise the most welfare.
A lot of people don't understand the concept of left wing and right wing politics. They just vote for the person with the nice smile.
The term left wing politics and right wing politics originated in France during the revolutionary period. The seating of the French National Assembly in 1789 was: the King in the middle; the aristocrats on the right; the commoners on the left. This evolved into what we have now.
The traditional left wing colour is red and for the right wing is blue. During the 'red scare' period of 1947-57 many Americans were scared that the US had been infiltrated by communists and journalists popularised the 'red under the bed' slogan. A person that is a genuine conservative is known as a true blue conservative. Note that the US parties have reversed this convention.
Currently there are many shades of grey in politics but the main groups can be expressed as from left wing to right wing: Communist; Socialist; Liberal; Conservatist; Capitalist. The terms fascist and anarchist are also loosely used at times, often as insults.
In the last Australian general election some of the candidates didn't know what their political party's platform was. That makes them on par with the voters.
Australia is one of 5% of democracies in the world that have compulsory voting. Some voters write rude messages on the ballot form to protest about forced voting.
Australia has preferential voting. Voters must rank candidates in order of choice on the ballot form. Votes are redistributed to the top ranking candidates until a winner is found. Sometimes the candidate with the most primary votes loses and the person with the most secondary votes wins.
Marking the ballot form in numerical sequence from top to bottom is known as a donkey vote. Most candidates like to be the first on the ballot form because of this.
The Australian upper house has so many candidates at election time that the ballot paper is more than a meter wide.
A politician can be a person who seeks personal or partisan gain, often by scheming, manoeuvring, lying, deceit, false accusation, coercion, bribing, blackmailing, classroom indoctrination or terminating the opponent with extreme prejudice. It just depends on what country you are in.
The general population do not trust politicians. On a scale from 1 to 30 where 30 was the least trusted, car salesmen and advertising people were at the bottom, while TV reporters (CNN?) and politicians were 22 and 23 respectively.
Even politicians don't trust politicians. Australian Don Chip started a new political party with the intent 'To keep the bastards honest'. US president Donald Trump campaigned on a ticket to 'drain the swamp', there were far more aligators than he anticipated even in his own party.
Political cartoonists and journalists love politicians particularly the politicians that have big ears and/or noses and ones that can be satirised and otherwise made fun of. The humorous and satirical magazine 'Punch' did that for more than 150 years. The Australian cartoonist Larry Pickering drew extremely insulting cartoons about Australian politicians most of them NSFW.
Politicians believe the seven deadly sins exist and try to commit all of them.
Some politicians are such half wits that it would take two them to make a complete idiot.
Career politicians are self serving and are a threat to democracy.
Left wing Communists traditionally hate right wing Capitalists yet many successful and very rich capitalists are politically extremely left wing.
Sir Richard Branson is a wealthy Capitalist but his politics are very left. He likes to lecture countries leaders on 'climate change' and paying the carbon tax, but makes his billions by spewing hundreds of tonnes of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere every day.
All the worlds dictators were socialists.
Adolf Hitler wasn't a right wing bastard he was a left wing bastard.
The National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) became the NAZI party. No wonder they shortened the name.
Capitalism is based on the idea that you can win. Socialism is based on the idea that nobody wins.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under socialism it's just the opposite.
When comparing Michelle Obama with Melania Trump, beauty is in the eye of the politically correct.
Secret spy organisations around the world are using various dirty tricks to promote their preferred candidate in a country's political elections. This is usually done without the knowledge and permission of their government to ensure plausable deniability. Subtle propaganda and white anting is not uncommon and some people do not rule out suspicious fatal accidents.
Many political protest marches and rallies are led by professional protesters who have no interest in what they are protesting about. It is possible to hire protesters, rioters and graffiti artists complete with protest banners, but you need money.
You can check how YOU lean politically by taking the 'I Side With..' political quiz. In the top right corner you can choose your country. Alternatively you can use 'What Breed Of Liberal Are You' or 'What Breed Of Conservative Are You'.
Cartoon by Ben Garrison “Drain the Swamp”
References:
Good Reads political quotes.
Oxford English Dictionaries.
The American Heritage® Dictionary.
Wiktionary.
Wordnik.
Punch Magazine.
This article is written in Australian English with some vernacular. All content on this website including reference data is for informational purposes only and this information should not be considered complete accurate or up-to-date and while all care is taken no responsibility is accepted or implied.
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